Edmund from Ah Cheng Laksa recently invited us to eat dinner at the Ah Cheng Laksa branch at e@Curve (formerly Cineleisure Mutiara Damansara) a while back to sample a few of his dishes.

Myself, Steve and Sue Ann were there as well as fellow blogger, Timothy from 3 Meals of Goodness.

It’s always nice to meet other people who have the same interest as us and admittedly, we’ve not done it enough… perhaps more in the future?

But anyway, back to the food. Edmund let us sample a few noodles dishes, some soup and some rice dishes. (more…)

The Feedmelah.com team was invited for a Media Preview at the Pyramid Tower Hotel a few days ago. The preview in question was for a 10 day special menu by guest chef Chef Wuttichai of The Sukhothai Bangkok’s esteemed Celadon restaurant.

“Celadon at The Sukhothai Bangkok is one of the city’s most celebrated restaurants serving pure Thai cuisine. It was named the “Best Restaurant in Bangkok” by Travel and Leisure magazine as well as “The Best Restaurant in Bangkok 2006″ by Conde Nast Traveler 2006.”

As I was the only one that was free, the task was handed to me to head over and eat. I was only more than happy to do so.

The 10 day feast takes place from 1 to 10 April 2009 at the Atrium Café for their daily buffet lunch and dinner and boasts ‘authentic Thai specialities’.

For myself, the invited media and fellow food bloggers (such as Sid of Big Boys Oven) we were treated to a taster menu from the buffet, as well as a chance to talk to Chef Wuttichai himself.

After arriving at the restaurant, we were shown to our table and asked to ‘sign in’, most of the other guests wrote ‘journalist’ or ‘photographer’, so without really thinking I wrote ‘owner’…

Before too long, the Sunway Hotel Resort and Spa staff brought Chef Wuttichai over to introduce himself to us and answer any questions we had. I later found out that he’s actually really young, only 25 years old, but has already been working at the Celadon for 5 years.

He was a friendly guy, willing to answer our questions, even though he was not completely comfortable speaking to us in English.

Once the questions were done, he brought us over to the buffet area, where our taster menu was laid out in large claypots. He explained each dish to us, the ingredients contained inside and which of them were spicy.

He also took the time to demonstrate to us how he prepares a traditional ‘Phad Thai’. Although his version was with glass noodles rather than the flat, thicker rice noodles.

Flavour wise, it tasted pretty much the same as the last time I had this dish in Phuket, with the slightly sweet-sour taste of the sauce mixing well with the vegetables and crunchy peanut bits. But as a personal preference, I preferred the texture of the flat noodles version (maybe cause it reminds me of kuey teow?).

After cooking the dish, he then had to pose for photos as we mobbed him like paparazzi.

The dishes that we tried were as follows:

“LAAB GAI”

Spicy Chicken Salad with Crushed Roasted Rice and Fresh Mint Leaves.

The dish was made in a way to give it a very savoury and sour taste. The savoury flavour mostly on the chicken bits, with the sour hit coming from the sauce and the vegetables. I particularly liked the savouriness of this as a starter.

“PLAA NUEA YANG”

Salad of Spicy Grilled Beef with Eggplant and Fresh Mint Leaves.

The chef warned us that some of the dishes were ‘spicy’ Thai style. Eat this and you know what he means. Now it’s not that I can’t eat spicy foods, I thought I had a pretty good tolerance of chillies and such. But this was pretty strong, making me cough every now and again. Tasty, but extremely spicy.

“YAM SOM-O GOONG SOD”

Pomelo Salad with Fresh Water Chestnuts and Prawns.

The texture of the soft, sweet pomello bits went well with the prawns.

“TOM KHAA GAI”

Soup of Chicken in Coconut Milk with Galangal, Kaffir Lime Leaves and Small Dried Chillies.

When I think of Thai food, I always think of Tom Yum. But as a change and perhaps a bit more traditional, the chef prepared Tom Khaa Gai instead. It’s made of coconut milk, so I thought it’d come out with the santan taste that we find in curry, but it didn’t. In fact, it tasted a little like Tom Yum, but more delicate and creamy and not so spicy.

“GAENG KIEWWARN GAI”

Green Curry with Chicken.

The green curry wasn’t as spicy as other green curries I’ve tried before. It had the familiar taste of green curry, but with a stew like consistancy rather than the more liquid curries I’m accustomed to. Very easy to just eat this with white rice alone…

“KHAO PHAD MAAN GOONG”

Fried Rice with Prawn Fat and Prawns.

“PHAD KAPRAO NUEA LAE KAI JIEW”

Fried Beef with Chilli and Basil Leaves served with Thai Omelette.

This dish was another one of the spicy dishes the chef warned us about. I don’t know how he managed to get so much spice on such small pieces of meat but it really had a kick. More so than the beef salad above.

But having said that, it had a nice seasoning on the beef, making you want to eat more, even though it got progressively harder and harder to do so.

The green bits in the picture are NOT sliced up long beans.

“TOFU PHAD CHAA PRIK GAENG DAENG”

Fried Tofu in Red Curry Sauce.

A mild spicy sauce covered the tofu, which was cooked to the texture of soft cooked potatoes rather than normal tofu.

“PLA PHAD NAAM PRIK PHAO”

Sautéed Fish with Sweet Chilli Paste.

“TAB TIM KROB”

Water Chestnuts in Clear Dumplings with Jackfruit in Coconut Syrup.

The dessert was extremely nice, one of my favourite dishes of the lunch. You can’t really see the pieces of water chestnut and Jackfruit in the picture because it’s under the whipped up coconut syrup.

The coconut syrup seemed to have been whisked very vigorously before being added into the dish, making it froth up with lots of air bubbles inside. This gave it a really delicate texture, with the sweetness of the coconut syrup being noticeable, but lasting just a second before disappearing.

The water chestnut had a good crunch, with the Jackfruit adding a little bit more sweetness to the dish. This was definitely something I’d never tried before in KL.

If you like your Thai food authentic, unaltered for the Malaysian palette and you can handle the occasional spicy dish, you should give the buffet a try. It’s available daily for their buffet lunch and dinner from 12.00noon to 2.30pm, and 6.00pm to 10.00pm. Buffet lunch is priced at RM45++ per adult and buffet dinner at RM65++ per adult respectively. Children dine at 50% off at the Restaurant.

The regular buffet menu items will also be available for those who have been there before.

Advanced reservations are highly encouraged.

Atrium Café

Lobby Level, Pyramid Tower Hotel,

Persiaran Lagoon, Bandar Sunway,

PJ (adjacent to Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa)

Cuisine: Buffet, Authentic Thai food (1 – 10 April 2009 only)

Halal

Telephone: +60 3 7492 8000 Extn. 6305.

The Feedmelah.com team were recently invited to our very first food tasting by Maria’s restaurant, in Damansara Perdana. Having never been to any official food tasting before, we were not sure what to expect and what to do (I even asked Amy, one of the owners, if we had to pay for the food).

We’d actually been told about this place by a fellow blogger, Ken, of Foodpoi.com in a comment he left in a previous post. He told us to head to Maria’s to eat their steak but until I got to Damansara Perdana  I had forgotten he had said that.

Maria’s was first established 9 years ago in Greentown Business Centre, Ipoh, by Maria Tan and her late husband Phillip Tan. It became a huge draw for patrons who love Maria’s steaks and signature cakes.

Both shared a passion for good food to eat, and to cook. At a time when Ipoh had little to shout of in terms of fine western restaurants, Maria and Phillip would scour the world in their travels to discover delightful kitchen secrets.

They opened up their Damansara Perdana branch about 2 years ago, which they styled with a country style influence, giving it that slightly ‘homey’ look and feel.

The branch manager, Mary Ann, one of the daughters of the owners, welcomed us when we got to the restaurant and immediately started laying out what she had planned for us to eat. And she had planned ALOT of food. Good thing I can eat alot and so can Steve…

Starters

Caesar's Salad

First up, something light and easy, a simple Caesar’s salad (RM12). Shaved bits of Parmesan, bacon bits (beef), walnuts and croutons with a light dressing.

Pumpkin Soup

Ox Tail Soup

Next up came two thick hearty soup dishes, the pumpkin soup and oxtail soup (RM18) respectively. The pumpkin soup (RM7.50) was freshly made, thick and creamy, which I particularly liked because alot of places I’ve been to serve canned soups and this one was definately freshly made.

Steve and Sue Ann particularly liked the Ox tail soup, asking for them to leave it on the table so that they could munch on the excess meat.

By this point the rich soups were already begining to fill us up but the main meals were yet to come. Mary Ann had chosen 4 main dishes for us to try.

There were only 3 of us eating.

Main Meals

Grilled Salmon Fillet

The first main meal to come was the Grilled Salmon Fillet (RM35)  in a tangerine sauce.

Mary Ann was telling us that instead of regular salmon meat, they used sashimi grade salmon (chilled, not frozen) which they cooked medium rare, with the inside of the salmon still very pink. The result was a very soft and almost buttery texture, which blended great with the tangerine sauce.

Black Angus Steak

Wagyu Steak

In quick sucession came both the steak dishes they had made for us, a slab of Black Angus (top) and Wagyu (bottom) steaks respectively. Both steaks look almost identical but they had extremely different tastes.

The Black Angus (RM40/100g) has a more smokey flavour and firmer texture than that of the Wagyu, with the outer sides of the meat tasting a bit more charbroiled.

The Wagyu has a more buttery flavour (due to the marbling of the fat in the meat) and a much softer texture on the inside, almost melting in your mouth.

The cut of Wagyu we had was a grade 5 (grade 9 being the most expensive and the most fat content) which cost RM60/100gm. Mary Ann was telling us that they would have grade 7 Wagyu steaks for their customers soon, which would have been even softer than the one that we ate.

NZ Baby Cutlets

The final dish was NZ Baby Cutlets (RM48), with exactly one piece each for us to pick up by the bone and munch on the soft succulent lamb meat. Nicely seasoned with the same charbroiled taste as the steaks before.

After 3 starters and 4 main meals, we were truely full by now. But there’s always space for dessert right?

Dessert

Blueberry Cheesecake

A slice of Blueberry cheescake (RM7)…

Tiramisu

…and a serving of Tiramisu (RM12).

Both desserts were made by the chef (Mary Ann’s uncle – it’s a family business after all), but be warned, the Tiramisu has quite a ‘kick’ in it due to the alcohol.

All in all, a nice way to finish the meal.

Eating at Maria’s was a treat, especially the steaks, as I had never eaten Black Angus (which tasted great with the seasoning and charbroiled flavor), before with the Wagyu and Salmon dishes having a great melt in your mouth texture. We’d definately go back again.

Maria’s Restaurant and Cafe
C313A, Center Wing, Metropolitan Square,

No 2, Jln PJU 8/1, Bandar Damansara Perdana,

47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Cuisine: Western (Steaks)

Pork Free

Telephone Numbers
Outlet: 03 – 7725 2313
Mary Ann (Manager): 012-5200772
Jane Low (Manager): 012-2977996

Map:

Click to enlarge

* Prices are subject to change, please contact the restaurant for the most current prices.